Is it possible for my father to have been 100% Italian and for my DNA ethnicity results be showing I am only 10% Italian or have I uncovered a "family secret". I am sure that anyone reading this can imagine this is upsetting.

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Remember that ethnicity is a lot deeper than one or two generations. Just because your father may have been born in Italy does not make his DNA 100% Italian. Like Zeke mentioned above, your father's ancestors 5 or 8 or 10 generations farther back may have come from elsewhere. For more information on interpreting your DNA results, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiClHKiWcGI&feature=plcp

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Hi- I had a similar experience with my DNA results- grandparents from Italy, Italian last name and mannerisms but no Italian in my DNA results. Working though it further, I discovered that further back in my line I have ancestors that migrated to Italy from Israel (I have significant Middle East in my results). It was somewhat fun to track down, almost like a puzzle. Best of luck!

Remember that ethnicity is a lot deeper than one or two generations. Just because your father may have been born in Italy does not make his DNA 100% Italian. Like Zeke mentioned above, your father's ancestors 5 or 8 or 10 generations farther back may have come from elsewhere. For more information on interpreting your DNA results, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiClHKiWcGI&feature=plcp

Crista, your video was quite helpful -- thank you. I have a similar question to Jillian Krueger's. I am the first person in my family to be born in the USA--my parents, one born in Austria and one born in England, emigrated from England shortly before I was conceived, and they stayed :) In my case, then, I am not puzzled about my *ancestors'* ethnicity being unrepresented in my AncestryDNA (autosomal) results -- it's my *father* whose absence I'm puzzled by. His purported country of birth isn't in my results. 10% I can understand, but 0%?

In fact every time evry child recieves 50% ethnicity from his father and 50% ethnicity from his mother. I.e. the child gets each of the pair of chromosomes from each parent. The ethnicity percentage is higher if the mother and father share similar ethnicity.

Did you test both your parents? I would rather suggest that your assumption is not correct as where your ethnicity comes from.

It may be possible that both your mother and your father have a mix - thus increasing the percentage of the 'Irish' element, but there is no way your father to gives you 2/3rds of your ethnicity. I would be happy if others will share their opinion on the percentage contribution possible for each parent.

i.e. here I get also Mideast potion from my mother as well as my father - 55.4%/2+14.2%/2=34.8%. As there is an margin of error in each of the parents (and here is my aunt's result instead of my mother's) the values vary slightly.

As you can see the Mideast (various subcontinents) is 1/4 and the Europe is 3/4 based that each parent provides 1/2 of the ethnicity.

In the case of my daughter

her father is 100% Southeast Europe,

so she will get not more than 35.8%/2 =17.9% (26.3% (+-9.5%)) and not less than 16.8%/2=8.4%, on average 26.3%/2=13.15% Mideast from me, (the percentage will vary in what has gone in the combination from the two pairs of chromosomes to produce the single that goes in the ovum) the rest will be the combined effect of her father's and my ethnicity.

So what I was aiming to present is that 50% of the genes comes from the father and 50% from the mother and there is no way how the either of the parents can contribute more than 50% of the mix to the child.

The 15% of the Mideast ethnicity in my aunt shows that one of her grandparents was with 100% Mideast ethnicity.

I also had a question. I have relatives that I know are blood relatives fairly close on my mother's side (I am female) that are participants in Ancestry DNA & are not listed as any kind of match. Is there a numerical valuation of the results I can get?

Thanks for your question. Currently we don't display a numerical valuation for the results, but we have announced on our blog, what's new in 2013:

AncestryDNA believes that our customers have the right to their own genetic data. It is your DNA, after all. So we’re working to provide access to your raw DNA data in early 2013, which includes related security enhancements to ensure its safety during every step of the process. Moving forward, we plan to add even more tools and improvements for our customers, and any new features will be available to all AncestryDNA members. The link is below if you would like to read the full article:

I was confused by my DNA results as well. My mother is second generation Italian, all of her relatives can be traced back to Italy for hundreds of years. My result is 37% Southern Euro and 31% Eastern Euro - this makes sense to me because of the close proximity of the two regions. My largest confusion was that in my family tree I have a lot of Scottish history but only 7% British Isle. I however have 14% Scandinavian and I did some research to find that the Vikings invaded and occupied Scotland in the 8th century. My husband has been told that he is Scottish and he has a Scottish last name, but no British DNA, but over 30% Scandinavian. Explains how DNA traveled with the people, so is it safe to assume that many Scottish people have Scandinavian DNA? The last most confusing thing, my husbands grandmother was 1/4 Cherokee, no native American DNA in my husband. My great grandmother was part Apache, no Native American in my DNA.

I'm beginning to understand that the shuffle of DNA that ends up being you does not necessarily capture a percentage of your grand parents. I also now understand that if my mother's DNA comes out 80% Southern Euro that would not make me %40 Southern Euro. It's not that cut and dry.

Any feedback from other's who thought for sure Native American DNA would be revealed in your results?

I had a friend who had a similar question about Native American (NA) and after she got her results she didn't have any NA reported. So she decided to test another sibling because of the way this kind of DNA is inherited-it is completely random and when it is being passed we don't inherit all pieces. Even your siblings could have different results as you, because you don't inherit the same 50% from each of your parents.

Anyway, she ended up testing all 4 of her siblings and only one had the 9% NA and the rest didn't. Now if her parents were available to test that would of been the best scenario but she could of also tested any aunts or uncles on those same lines in question to get the best genetic picture of her ancestors.

I just got my DNA results. The math doesn't seem right. I am certain (with documentation) that my mother is half Lithuanian and half Northern Italian. My father is mostly German/Austrian with some Irish.

Thanks for your post. We understand ethnicity results are very important part and we are continuing to improve the way it is reported with the more samples we get. The reason that you have 6% uncertain is because we couldn't confidently place you into one of our groups. These results will most likely change and update with the more data we get and the more we improve. It is very exciting to be apart of this kind of technology, and see the advances we will make in the near future. Thank you for being apart of it and posting in our community!

Re: Ancestry's autosomal DNA product: How can you be a match to someone with whom you apparently share no ethnicity? My mother is listed as having 3 predicted 4th cousins (4th-6th cousin range), with a confidence level of 95%, yet the listed ethnicity breakdowns of these people do not coincide in any particular with my mother's listed ethnicities.

Each of these 3 matches had some very small percentage of "uncertain" ethnicity; yet my mother's ethnicity was completely accounted for: 89% Central European and 11% Scandinavian.

Is it a given that my mother is related to these individuals through their "uncertain" ethnicity-- which must turn out to be either Central European or Scandinavian... right?

This is a great question. It’s actually quite possible to have a 4th cousin and not have shared ethnicity. It all comes down to DNA inheritance and the amount of DNA that you have in common.

For example, with most 4th cousins you share a common ancestor 5 generations back. Let’s call your common ancestor Great-Great-Great-Grandpa Joe. Keep in mind you inherit about 50% of your DNA from each parent, 25% from each grandparent and so on. So going that far back means you inherited at most about 3% of Joe’s DNA. Your 4th cousin also inherited 3% of Joe’s DNA, but not the exact same 3% as you. You actually only share about 0.2% of the same DNA as your 4th cousin, and that's how we make the DNA match. If you think about it—that leaves over 99% of your DNA that you don’t have in common with your 4th cousin. So if your ethnicity points to the British Isles, and your 4th cousin is Eastern European, don’t be surprised.

AnnaS, this is the closest answer I found so far to a question I have. It sounds like you’re saying that variables with ethnicities don’t concede directly with relationship percentage ranges and confidence levels. I’m speaking of Member Match cousin levels i.e. 3rd-5th, 5th-7th and cofidence ranges.

What I am wondering is why some of my sister's and my matches are at different relation ranges. My sister’s match may be low confidence, distant cousin 5th– 8th and mine may be 96% confidence 3-5th cousin for the same person. I have found theses difference on several matches already and have a lot more cousins to compare. One additional thing is we don’t have the same father. But I’m thinking a match is a match. I’m trying to figure out why the differences. Are these differences common?

I too have different match "strengths" with my sister and Dad. This is very common and expected since we don't all have the exact same DNA.

I have a match on my Phillips line who appears as a 5-8th cousin match for me, but as a 4th cousin for my sister and Dad. That is the game of genetics. A match is determined by how much DNA you share with the other individual. Since we can't predict which part of the 50% we will pass on-it is completely random. So in this case I am assuming I got less of this specific DNA from my Dad (but enough to show a relationship) where as my sister perhaps inherited the same portions that show up in him to her to make this same match strength. I also have matches that neither one of them have-which I think are from my mom's side since my Dad doesn't have these matches.

This is why it is important to get multiple people in your family tested, so you can have more genetic representation. My advice is to start with the oldest generation and get them tested before the DNA is lost.

Anna S, I'm sorry, but I have a hard time understanding/believing your explanation. If the autosomal DNA test found that I have a gene(or a few genes) that classify me as 100 % Scandanavian, and I am matched(by this Ancestry.com test) with an actual cousin, then you are saying that that cousin could be classified as 100% Persian. To me, it seems that the similar gene that matched us would HAVE to be classified as even .001% either one or the other, taking the 100% down to 99.999.......They HAVE to share something in order to be a match, even if it is the tinest %. That is what got the 2 matched in the first place.

I'm glad to hear that the results aren't so cut and dry. My grandmother always said we had Cherokee. Now, paper wise, I have found nothing to really truely indicate this.

I recieved my results and 100% of my ancestry was accounted for over three areas. Nothing was "uncertain". And nothing indicated Native American. I've believed for so long that I was, that I'm heartbroken. I was hoping this test would indicate what the paper trails couldn't. I guess I was wrong.

Does anyone know, if you do have Native American ancestry what it looks like on the autosomal dna test?

If you are using DNA to answer your specific question it is also a good idea to get more people tested in your family. tclark, who posted earlier had similar questions as you did and I shared a story from a friend. Below is what I said and attached are the results of her sibling's test.

had a friend who had a similar question about Native American (NA) and after she got her results she didn't have any NA reported. So she decided to test another sibling because of the way this kind of DNA is inherited-it is completely random and when it is being passed we don't inherit all pieces. Even your siblings could have different results as you, because you don't inherit the same 50% from each of your parents.

Anyway, she ended up testing all 4 of her siblings and only one had the 9% NA and the rest didn't. Now if her parents were available to test that would of been the best scenario but she could of also tested any aunts or uncles on those same lines in question to get the best genetic picture of her ancestors.

Ancestry is looking for feedback about what you thought about your DNA results. You can access the request from Facebook via the following link and just scroll down to see the post. http://www.facebook.com/Ancestry.com?fref=ts

Sorry, LHiggins, but that direct link is NOT to a DNA result feedback form. The form is titled "Got a great family history success story?" which obviously has nothing to do with the current state of AncestryDNA testing. There are no successes, only a LOT of confusion.

We really do need a simple way to send feedback - real feedback - to Ancestry. And more than anything we need Ancestry to explain how to interpret results. The answers AnnaS has been giving on this thread are 10 times more informative than anything Ancestry itself has ever published. Everything else DNA related on this site is obviously written by marketing geeks who wouldn't know a chromosome if one hit them in the face.

I have an even more basic question. When Ancestry offered the very inexpensive test I went ahead with it. People have asked me what KIND of DNA test this is. My understanding is some test mother's line or father's. Did this one test BOTH? I find this confusing.

And I have found lots of results, but can't find anyone with a tree who even has one person who appears in my tree. Lots of same last names, but I can't make any connections. What are people doing with these results?

The new AncestryDNA test is referred to as an Autosomal test in the industry. The test looks at 700,000+ locations on your 23 pairs of chromosomes that you inherited from your mom and dad. They each passed 50% of their DNA to you, whom they inherited from their parents and grandparents all the way back. So we test your DNA and then compare it to everyone else that has been tested with Ancestry to see who you have common shared DNA with. Depending on how much DNA you share with other person Ancestry will then predict what kind of relationship you have with this person(1st cousins, 4th cousins, 8th cousins). After the DNA is compared and relationships have been posted, Ancestry’s behind the scene team tries to pull any information from your tree and your match’s tree to see where you might be matching genetically. Use your filter to search for matches that have hints, this will show you right a way if we have been able to find the connection for you.

Most of my matches are with 4th cousins. Depending on what questions I have on which of my lines, I look for shared surnames and locations with those I match with. Since surnames aren’t always correct, looking at the maps and location tab is another tool to help us understand how we are matching someone genetically.

There is good news; it’s going to get better as time goes on. More people getting tested, better technology to help us understand the matches, this is an exciting time to be a part of genetic genealogy.

I'm excited to be a part of this new technology. Even though I was confused about my DNA results at first (see above, the percentages didn't match my known pedigree), I think I have a much better general understanding now. I just ordered a DNA test kit for my wife. Anyways, I still wish I could understand my DNA results better. I have no idea what happened to my Northern Italian genes-- probably considered to be Central European? I'd like to learn more about this type of DNA testing (the science behind my results). How reliable are the results? Can I confidently tell people now that I am 57% Eastern European, 37% Central European, 6% uncertain? How many people have participated in Ancestry DNA so far? What are the demographics of those who have been tested? How long (roughly) will I have to wait before my 6% uncertain is clarified, months-years? What is this "number valuation" others have been asking about?

Nathaniel, I have the same questions. My daughter has 56% British Isles (makes sense on both sides of the family we have ancestors from England and Ireland), 16% Persian/Turkish/Caucuses (absolutely no clue, but I know almost nothing about my paternal grandmother so it's possible some of this is from her), 17% Eastern European (again scratching my head on this one), and 11% Souther European (which matches - my father-in-law's grandfather was from Italy and my great-grandfather was from Northern Italy). I understand that the DNA goes back much further than either my husband or my's great-grandparents, but I couldn't help be surprised by a result that shows 1/3 of my daughter's ethnicity to be unrelated to what we "knew" and have none of the Western or Central European DNA we expected. I'm tempted to test my other daughter and then my husband and myself, but I went a little crazy last year and spent my research budget for the next few years.

After we get my wife's results, we'll probably have our daughter tested-- just for the fun of it. My wife is from Ecuador, so this should be VERY interesting! We're gonna really put this to the test, lol. I see that your daughter's DNA is 100% accounted for. Interesting variety she has. I'm kinda hung up right now on my 6% uncertain-- this will probably bother me until its clarified. I think it's either gonna be Irish, English, or Native American. My mother, who is half Italian and half Lithuanian, looks full blooded Lithuanian-- so I think I got a heavy dose of Eastern European genes from her. My father's side is heavily German and Austrian (and Irish). Taking into consideration the closeness of borders and migration between Austria and Eastern Europe, I can sort of understand how my percentages turned out the way they did. This is all new to me. I'm still learning. I love reading about other people's results. Thanks for sharing.

Why is it that the DNA matching service comes up with NOTHING closer than
4th - 6th cousin potential or beyond? Does no one that close to someone
else EVER submit DNA? )2nd or 3rd cousins?) Just curious...

Sounds like either something's wrong with the algorithm Ancestry.com uses to calculate relationships or your brother shares somewhat less than the expected approximate 50% of shared DNA with a full sibling. 1/2 siblings typically share about 25% of their DNA, and first cousins share about 12.5% of their DNA.

Kathy root - you state that there are two of your sisters tested and one brother. One of the sisiter is shown as first cousin to the brother. How is she shown to the other sister and how the other sister is show to the borther? If the other sister is shown as 'sister' to the borther, then the 'cousin' should be cousin to the other sister as well. The 'cousin' will cousin to both of them, or the two sisters will be both cousins to the brother.

Kathy, When I first read this post a few days ago, it seemed like an interesting question that received some logical answers. Now today, when I read it I thought of something different., which no one has suggested. Haven't we all in our family tree had brother & sister marry a sister & brother of a different family? I know I have double cousins because of that. ...... Now consider 2nd cousins marrying each other, or even first. Any of that in your family. It happened in my ancestors(gr-grandparents were 2nd cousins). And my wife has numerous examples. So on paper (and your software program should be able to give you relationships), you might end up as a 3rd cousin to your brother, or a 2nd cousin, once removed from your mother. Is it possible that this is what is showing up in your DNA test? Do you & all your siblings show the exact same ethnicity? The genes(showing ethnicity) that are dominant in you may be from one person(or ethnicity), while your sibling picked up genes in a different way. .....Could that account for the DNA test showing you are genetically related to your siblings in more than one way: ie, as cousins, rather than as siblings?

We did have first cousins marrying. For example, the brother of my 2x great grandfather married their first cousin after they immigrated to US in the 1840s. However my 2x great grandfather did not marry a first cousin but I dont have all the relationships and how close they were before they immigrated. But it is an interesting consideration.

I haven't had my test results for very long, so I haven't tried to contact all the close matches(95-98% probabilty), or have not gotten replies. However, 2 of the matches were predicted about 3rd cousin --98%. One is actually my 2nd cousin, once removed. Our trees didn't quite have enough info to give us a leaf match, so it took some time to prove we were cousins. But it was well worth the wait. She has a treasure trove of photos, as well as a brief (but poignant) autobiography of my gr-grandmother, who immigrated at age 9 to WI where she started a family(losing 2 of the babies), migrated to SD, headed back to WI, etc. Anyhow, the matching CAN give close relationships. Just remember, that most of the people tested probably live in the US, and you probably already know them. The farther away the relationship, the number of possible cousins grows exponentially. So having sooooo many more people out there who are your more distant cousins, you are naturally going to get hits because of the laws of probabilities.

Great question.Nathaniel Baker's responses below is spot on in the fact that perhaps none of your closer relatives have taken the test? I know others who have found unknown 3rd cousins through DNA testing on Ancestry.

I myself match my Dad as a parent/child but only have 4th cousin and no 3rd or 2nd cousins yet. The database is dynamic so as more people get tested the better the chance you have to get more matches. That is why this is so exciting! Also, if you build out your tree with more names the better chance you will have to find how you are related to your DNA matches. Thanks for you post-we appreciate your questions and feedback.

I would expect that there should be no difference between your own tests, unless:

there is two much time between the two tests, or

there is significant difference in the techniques (chip, algorithm etc).

I would rather expect that tests taken with older techniques (chip, algorithm etc) are updated or at least a there is a warning notice.

I have tested with FT DNA last year and just submitted my sample to 23andMe. Sharing my experience- Just now there is an announcement on FT DNA that they are doing an upgrade from NCBI Build 36 to Build 37 .....Because we are not just changing the position data but recalculating matches based on improved data, i.e. just changing from one genome mapping to the next level can improve matching - take out speculative relatives and bring others that did not appear as such in the previous matching due to the algorithm of sanity checks etc. I would expect the same with ancestry testing - each change to new NCBI build to have effect on the data and the relationships. Unless it is impossible the test result to be upgraded in the frame of the new genome build. By the way - which build is ancestry test using? NCBI announced that in June it will release NCBI build 38.

Is it possible that the tests of the 4 of you were taken at different time some of which when different NCBI builds were applicable? I haven't tested with ancestry.com yet, so I am not familiar with how things are done here.

Is there a chromosome browser in ancestry test results where you can select your matches and see per chromosome the starting and ending point / points of the match, the length of the match and the number of the SNP's per this segment? This is very useful when trying the go in deeper.

So my point is unless there is significant difference in the way your test was performed there should be no difference between T1 and T2. - these should give results as if you are twins (since it is the one and the same person's test) and there should be no difference from which account it is looked at. It is strange that T1 appears on Sis A, Sis B and B matches, but the reciprocal is not valid!!

It is a conundrum. T1 was a cheek swab and T2 was the spit test. As to your question regarding the technical aspects I admit ignorance. I can tell you that Ancestry does not have a chromosome browser. On ancestry we dont have access to the detail of our . It says it uses microarray autosomal testing. You seem to be a technical person. I look forward to reading how you interpret what is out there on Ancestry.

What would be Ancestry's reasoning behind not providing us our genetic markers detail.

Please excuse me if I have misled you, but I am not a technical person. It happened by chance - just recently I tried to dig up more in depth, because on FTDNA my father has 2 speculative matches (definition of speculative - 4th-5th cousin with matching segment length around 12-8cM and total shared segment around 35-20cM), I have 8 speculative relatives and my mother's sister has 13 speculative matches. (the relationship to my father and to my aunt are confirmed by the test).

Since I tested first I expected to see my matches either at my father's or my mother's (through my aunt) side. I was surprised when this did not happened. The 2 speculative relatives my father has are at the end of genealogical matching time frame, so no chance they to match me and they are not on my list. SO no common matches with my father.

There are only 2 matches common with my aunt. This left me with 6 speculative matches only to myself and left my aunt with 9 speculative matches only to herself.

So I started reading here and there.... The truth is that each parent passes down 50% of hi/her genes, but every time the combination is different. So my mother got one mixture of the genes of the 4 grandparents, my aunt got another mixture of the 4 grandparents.

At FTDNA the autosomnal and the X-chromosome data can be downloaded freely by the user only and then the user can upload, share, match wherever one think it is safe to do so.

In the file you can see the chromosome browser. For the purpose I have selected two persons only - my aunt and my father. The yellow are the regions matching with my aunt, the blue - the matching regions with my father. the next picture is the data on each chromosome.

I do not see any reason why Ancestry.com should not provide such simple service - In fact I thought it was a standard in the autosomnal testing.

The chromosome browser gives you visibility of how much you share, where you share. for example in the 5th chromosome I share a very little segment with my aunt - so anybody who shares a segment with her there will be her relative, but not mine in the technical calculation. I assume that if you had the chance to look at the matching segments by pairs, by the three of you or at one go the 4 of you - you would be able to see where the differences come from. I can not say that you will be able to make a judgment only using the chromosome browser, but it may support you in your assumptions.

We know that sharing the data and information of your results are very important and we are working on away to be able to do this securely and privately. We thank you for your patience as our AncestryDNA test is still in Beta and we continually make improvements to enhance the user experience.

I just want to clarify that the results are THEIR results. They agreed to participate and sent in their samples so there should be a way that you can email them the results in a nice format so they feel like they received something directly for their participation. Here's how I see it. As administrator I receive notification of their results via email, I then go to those results for that person and click a button which says you may enter one email address and a report will be sent to that address. The email send would include the pie chart, the map, the blurb about what part of the world they are from, the definition of uncertain and a blurb about the continuing refinement of the results.